For decades, researchers, epidemiologists, domestic violence advocates, and media reports have been sounding the alarm on a longstanding reality: Pregnant women and birthing people are more likely to die by homicide than any other obstetric-related cause. At the center of the crisis is the firearm — used in a majority of these killings, most often at the hands of intimate partners. Young women under the age of 25 and Black women bear the brunt of this violence but are often overlooked in efforts meant to address it, the Trace reports. The reality of pregnancy-related and postpartum killings by firearm dates back decades, but a full picture of the crisis is still evolving alongside the national tumult over reproductive rights. “Women experiencing intimate partner violence are not who are immediately thought of when discussions of gun legislation or changes in reproductive access come up,” said Rebecca Lawn, a public health scholar at Harvard University who studies interpersonal violence. She was shocked when she first learned the extent to which pregnant women are at risk. “But, the bottom line is, these deaths are preventable.”
Pregnancy can often be the most dangerous time in a birthing person’s life. Pregnant and postpartum women are 16 percent more likely to be homicide victims than their non-pregnant women peers, and the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 6 percent of people who have recently given birth experience some form of intimate violence. The number is likely an undercount. Despite the urging of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, half of the pregnant people who experience intimate partner violence are not screened for it during or after their pregnancy. Medical students are not typically trained in how to recognize domestic abuse and lack access to tools that have been shown to support patients, such as connecting with domestic violence advocates who can help provide safe housing or childcare. A strained system is stretched by a growing shortage of obstetricians and gynecologists, and fewer medical students applying for gynecology residencies after Roe v. Wade was overturned, a potential void that could worsen outcomes for those experiencing interpersonal violence. For pregnant people under 25, there is a more than 65 percent increase in homicide rates. Research also shows that race placed them at a higher risk. Between 2008 and 2019, Black women were half of pregnancy-related shooting victims despite making up only 13 percent of women of reproductive age. A 2021 report from the University of Indianapolis found that peripartum Black women were eight times more likely to be homicide victims than their non-pregnant counterparts.